History assignment

To What extent did Royal Power Grow between 1509-47?

1509 to 1547 where the years of Henry VIII, who is one of the longest reigning monarchs, and is one of the most well known, due to the religious and parliamentary changes that occurred under his reign. Royal power grew due to these changes, as it allowed him to pass laws that no European Monarch had been able to pass up until this point, and it verified him as greater than the pope in the eyes of his people. There are several laws he passed which did this; The act in restraint of appeals, which made appealing to a foreign power (ie, to the Papal State), The “Benefit of the Clergy”, which stripped power from the Church, and in turn grew the power of the monarch, The “Act of Supremacy”, which named the Monarch as head of the Church of England, the Treasons Act 1534, which made it treason to disavow the Act Of Supremacy, and the See of Rome act 1536, which Extinguished the Authority of the pope, and made it high treason to go to the pope over the monarch.

The most important of these laws is the Act in Restraint of Appeals(1532) Due to the large implications and impacts it had on European politics. The details of this law are that it is forbidden to appeal to the pope, making the King the final legal authority in all such matters in England, Wales, and other English possessions. What this means is that accepting papal authority was now illegal, and would have you executed.

The second most important is the Act of Supremacy(1534) Which Confirmed the Monarch of England as the head of the English church, and that he had always been above the pope. This was  based off of texts from when William of Normandy was crowned King of England, as well as other European documents relating to religion and the monarch. Instead of the act saying “Henry is now the supreme leader of the church” It merely confirmed it as fact; He had always been the head of Church and above the pope, this is just affirming it. This grew the Monarchs power because it meant that he no longer had to answer to the Pope, which was a massive leap forward. It also grew the Governments power, as they where now confirming the monarchs stem from god, “Divine right to theory” which says that Henry was chosen by God to lead England.

The rest will be in no particular order: The benefit of the clergy law(1512), which was a separate court of law that members of the clergy could apply to be sentenced by, which had softer sentences, so they could escape the death penalty. The 1512 act added several “unclergyable” felonies, which the benefit of the clergy did not apply to. This grew Royal Power because it gave the monarch more power over the people, instead of letting the Clergy let people go.

The treasons act(1534) was an act that made it treason to disavow the act of supremacy, which strengthened that act, and in turn the monarchs power. The see of Rome act(1536) was an act extinguishing the authority of the bishop of Rome, which was an insulting term for the pope. The act disavowed the Pope, and made it illegal to recognise the Popes authority, and was less an act and more an insult. This increased his power by making the Pope less popular, thus making Henry more popular.

In Conclusion: To a massive extent did the royal power grow in Henry VIII’s reign, as he broke with Rome and ushered in a new era of religion. In doing so he crushed the power of the Church, and also increased the power of the Government.




How Significant was the Spanish threat to England 1585-1601?

The threat from Spain was great in these years, as they where Larger than Britain, had more men, and had larger new world possessions than England. The Spanish Armada was also at the time more formidable than England's, meaning that without any allies England would be in large trouble. Luckily they had an unstable ally in France, who declared war on Spain and made peace with Spain several times during the time England was at war with Spain. They had a more permanent ally in the Netherlands, whom they where helping gain freedom from Spain.

In 1588 the Spanish armada set sail to Britain, giving giant risk to the sovereignty of Britain. If the armada has succeeded then this would be the first time since 1066 that Britain has been successfully navally invaded. Luckily for us the fleet was sunk due to good luck on out part, the weather. It was damaged to the point of most of it sinking, causing them to retreat back home. Ships where dispersed to finish off the fleet, but the crew mutinied and went privateering instead. This caused the Spanish to build up a second fleet. The same luckily happened to this fleet as well, with Philip of Spain going bankrupt after it failed. This didn’t stop the Spanish, who invaded with a third failing fleet.

After the fleets where defeated Britain no longer had the risk to our sovereignty, but there was still risk to our men and money, as we where in an active war against Spain. Luckily we had the occasional help from France, who was ruled by someone who was rumoured to be mad. He was initially protestant, but came out as Catholic by saying “Paris is worthy of a mass”. Yet still, he declared war on the Catholic Spain to boost nationalism, and was allied to the Protestant Britain, and Netherlands. Without the French Manpower we would have lost the land area of the war. Losing France would mean that the Spanish could launch Invasions off of the Frisian Coast. This would be extremely significant, and a loss on Europe would force Britain to concede defeat to Spain, which would put them in ban national standing, and would weaken them and strengthen Spain, which  is extremely bad in the long run.

The risk to our men is that we couldn’t field many of them, so any battle would be heavy on our losses, and it would be difficult to reinforce our regiments. It was also extremely expensive for such a small nation to arm this many men, putting us at risk of Bankruptcy.